1 Peter 2:11-15 “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, (12) having your conduct honourable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. (13) Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, (14) or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. (15) For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.”
When the church walks in righteousness then it does have an impact on the societies in which they live. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit through the apostle Peter informs us that when the church conducts itself honourably among the nations, that even though some may speak against the saints as being evildoers, that by continuing to do good that eventually their conduct will have the effect of silencing those in the world that would try advocating lawless behaviour. One of the reasons that the conduct of the church has this effect on unbelievers is because their consciences begin to convict them of their sinful behaviour when they observe the righteous behaviour of the church. Everyone has a conscience but not everyone listens to their conscience, however there are many in the world that do listen to their consciences and when sufficiently convicted, even though they may be unbelievers, they eventually begin to pressurize those advocating lawlessness to abandon their course of action. Our Lord Jesus demonstrated this truth to us when He was on the earth, for you will recall the incident when our Lord Jesus was confronted with the mob that wanted to stone the woman that they had deliberately entrapped in the sin of adultery. In response to their accusations our Lord said very little, but His actions ultimately had the effect of silencing them as their consciences began to take effect. The scriptural account tells us that the oldest, being convicted by their consciences, left first and finally the youngest also gave up and left when they realised they no longer had the support of their leaders (John 8:3-11).
Michael E.B. Maher
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